


Truth was built to bend

by risinggreatness



Series: Circle 'round the sun [105]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2015-02-27
Packaged: 2018-03-15 12:04:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3446471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/risinggreatness/pseuds/risinggreatness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(2/2 Pirate uprisings) During the pirate uprisings, all is true from a certain point of view (not EU compliant)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Truth was built to bend

As they clear away dinner, the kids start asking the questions Han thought he’d lucked out in not having to answer. He really should have known better.

“The pirates are the bad guys, right?” Sam asks almost blithely as they return from the kitchen.

“Yeah…” he answers slowly, waiting for the catch. ( _Before kids, he would have laughed, or given a smartass answer._ )

“But you were one before one before you met mom?” Bee swoops in.

Han groans out loud. They must have heard it from someone at the Temple or the senate – probably the senate.

“You were a bad guy?” Shmi pipes up, confused.

“No, no there’s a difference –” he begins.

Pres’s eyebrow shoots up, highly reminiscent of Leia.

Han persists, Chewie guffawing across the room, “Pirates steal from people. Smugglers just move stuff around. Sometimes people just want illegal stuff taken somewhere else, but smugglers are perfectly happy with legal cargo too.”

“Name one legal thing you’ve freighted,” Pres challenges.

“Uncle Luke,” Han shrugs. There are other answers; ones more technically correct, as Luke had been evading arrest, but the important thing was he wasn’t caught – that time.

“So you _have_ had illegal stuff on the Falcon,” Sam deflates, dejected.

Of _course_ he has; it is at once baffling that they haven’t figured this out and yet Han would really rather they didn’t know. Ever.

“Like what?” asks Bee.

Chewie barks ‘your mother’ from the kitchen – the kids dissolve into fits of giggles, Han lets out a relieved sigh. Yeah, stick with that story.

Shmi’s voice is smaller, “But you’ve been near pirates before. Are these ones really, really bad?”

Chewie catches Han’s eyes as he returns into the room. There’s no way of knowing how deep these pirates go, and as much as Han hates it, not much sense in coddling the kids from the most likely truth.

“Yeah, these ones are really bad.”

\----------

Dad leaves for the council; mom sleeps some more, fingers tangled in Shmi’s curls, head resting on her side.

Why did she have to ask Uncle Han about the pirates? Of course they had to be bad, but Shmi naming their power made mom get hurt like this.

Droids flit around the bed, sometimes making Shmi get up and move. She wishes they were R2 or even 3PO.

She wishes dad would get back even more.

When they are alone again, Shmi whispers to the dimly-lit room, “You and daddy can’t fight them anymore. Promise.”

No response.

“You have to promise,” she repeats.

“Have to promise what?”

Shmi only jumps slightly at dad in the doorway. She has to tell him now, shameful as her wish is. Her thoughts cascade: it’s not the Jedi way to not help and mom was only helping; they’ve fought much worse in their lifetime, everyone knows who dad’s fought.

Shmi licks her lips and doesn’t let her voice waver, “Have to promise not to get hurt again.”

Dad moves into the room and sits beside her. Even in the shadows, Shmi can tell he sees through her changed words, only he doesn’t say anything about it.

“That’s a lot to promise.”

Sticking her lip out in annoyance, “I don’t think it should be.”

He leans back and puts an arm around her. After a moment’s consideration, “No, it shouldn’t be, but we have to go into danger anyway.”

And one day, Shmi will have to go too and they’ll make her hold to the same promise.

\----------

It’s a bad habit to pick up again ( _and just when Ahsoka thought she’d gotten him to quit_ ), but Saw finds something natural in a rifle in one hand and a death stick in another.

His fingers are going to go numb and fall off before he gets the damn thing to light, the way the winds are howling.

There were protests from the council and Queen Mina that he personally should not go to the front defensive line at Morvolo; he blatantly ignores them all. Saw’s been itching to get off-world and defending Onderon from bloody pirates seems like the best excuse.

Ice cuts a deep ravine on the system’s landscape; their army waits near the mouth with scouts skirting up and down the edges of the cliffs.

“Sir?”

Saw’s focus pulls away from the death stick; a kid offers him a lit new one. He gladly takes it, nodding in acknowledgement.

“I guess I owe you some booze, right?”

Now his benefactor looks confused. “Sir?”

“You gave me a smoke, now I gotta – you know what? How old are you?”

“Eighteen, sir.”

Hell – an infant. Saw lets out a long whistle, mostly carried away by frigid winds.

“I want to defend Onderon, I don’t see what my age has to do with it!” he snaps forgetting Saw’s his superior officer, his senior in – Saw doesn’t want to admit how many years.

“You forgetting something?” Saw asks frostily.

“Sir.” The kid chomps down on the word, not wanting to concede any ground.

Saw lets out an exhale, chilled breath mingling with smoke. Let the boy be angry; Saw’s got a war to fight.

“Come on, soldier, let’s find where those pirates are hiding. Can’t let some Jedi upstage us.”

Saw steps into the gap between the walls of ice, the boy follows.

“What’s your name?”

“Ramsis Kad, sir.”

Onderon’s vogue for naming kids after their storied past is getting old in Saw’s eyes. He’s met a fair few new Saws in the intervening years. Enough to tickle his ego.

“You can drop the ‘sir,’ Ramsis.”

“Yes –”

Saw whips around with a near-disapproving eye. The kid doesn’t say ‘sir’ again.

“You from Iziz or one of those beast-riders from the country?”

“Country.”

“And what made you up and leave to join the big city for the army?”

“Wanted to make something of myself.”

Saw chuckles, “Yeah, I know something about that. You sure picked a hell of a time to start too.”

“Yeah, fighting weequays off.”

“They’re not all bad. Got some pretty good arms off one fighting the Separatists and the Republic way back in the day.”

“Think that’ll ever happen again?”

“Buying rocket launchers from a weequay?”

“No, fighting the Republic.”

“Nah. We’re free to do as we please; and I think we’re more interested in proving we’re just as organized as they are.”

Saw finds himself smiling at the thought. Then, looking into the ridges of the canyon, “I think that’s a cave.”

“Perfect place for them to hide.”

“Exactly.”

The mouth of the cavern is deserted. Saw, feeling bold, steps in the first few meters. Nothing. There can’t be another place for the pirates to quarter unless –

“Sir down!”

Kad slams into Saw’s shoulder hard; Saw falls on the ice and snow as blaster shots fly over his head.

He’s dazed as Kad practically drags him back out into the cold.

Yelling over the wind, “Did you see how many were with them?!”

“I did! Sorry about the shove; figured you’d rather be alive, sir!”

Saw barks in laughter. Yes, a few bruises are worth it.

“You sure about the numbers?!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Good. You’ll put together the report with the coordinates and make sure Senator Organa in the New Republic hears of it directly!”

\----------

Most eyes around the table shift their focus from Leia to Ahsoka when the next point is arrived on; Luke stays on Leia. ( _Composed outside; cycling between collapse and composure inside._ )

_Why did we not see this coming?_

“We did,” Ahsoka notes with a defensive edge. Then massaging her brows with her fingertips, “Ludicrous as it seems, if anyone left could have pulled off invading Coruscant, it’s Ventress.”

“But she led them to more defenseless ground and further out from the Core. Pirates tend to prefer that,” Darrin notes.

Ahsoka may have let out a hiss of annoyance at the obvious comment; Luke thinks he understands where she got the idea from. She painted a picture of the days of the Clone Wars; Dooku the de facto leader of the Separatist army, but Ventress the truly feared figure.

Someone with that pull could easily frighten the Republic again.

Iella speaks up, “And the New Republic is backing us up with its own military?”

“They are. Losing the system again for a length of time doesn’t speak well of the government’s stability.”

Luke doesn’t like how harshly dispassionate Leia’s explanation is. Only a trace of a wince passes through Ahsoka’s face. Luke lays a hand on Leia’s arm under the table; his chest still throbs.

Afterwards, most keep their distance from the pair, though Ahsoka steps forward.

“I’m sorry Leia. I was thinking of what the Ventress I knew might do, not pirate bands. We could have moved our ships to New Alderaan in time –”

“Stop, please.”

Both Ahsoka and Luke wait as Leia collects herself in a fraction of a second.

“It’s not your fault.”

“It was my call.”

“We’re going to save the system, right?”

“Yes…” Ahsoka begins slowly.

“That’s all that counts.”

There’s a fiery hunger in Leia, Luke knows well, as she reaches for Ahsoka’s hand to seal the pact.

\----------

The view on top of the freighter they’ve chosen to perch on gives a good visual on all the ships docking and taking off at the senate. And even better, no one’s caught them yet.

Yeah they might be in a little trouble if this one takes off suddenly, but Bee figures they can jump off fast enough with no injury – provided they stay clear of the engines.

“Hey, what are you buzz droids doing up there? Don’t you have a Temple to deface or teachers to bother?”

Lando’s voice reverberates off the ship. Bee does not need the Force to know Sam and Pres’s hearts leap too. If Lando’s back that can only mean –

“Where are mom and dad and Chewie?” Sam shouts as Pres slides down the side of the ship, Bee close behind.

“Nice to see you too,” Lando gripes good-naturedly, but aware of all of their desperate homesickness for the other half of their home.

“You got the docking bay wrong. They’re in the next one over. They were surprised you weren’t there and I got sent looking.”

Of all the stupid things to get wrong today!

Sam joins Bee and Pres on the ground and then the three of them start for the office back out to main hall.

“We’ll see you later! Thanks!” Bee remembers to shout over her shoulder as they leave; Sam and Pres do likewise.

Lando mock salutes.

Bee makes it into mom’s arms first; Sam to dad’s, Pres to Chewie’s.

She still smells like mom, though Bee knows she must have washed all the horrible battle away. More importantly, she still feels like mom; brave and strong and so much love.

“I missed you so much, mom.”

“Missed you too, baby.”

In turn, Bee is lifted off the ground by Chewie then gets her final hug from dad.

“That’ll be the last we’re gonna see of them for a while,” dad says with confidence.

“Them?” Bee inquires.

“Pirates,” dad waves a vague hand.

“You sure about that?” Pres asks skeptically.

“We can only hope,” mom says quietly, Sam holding tight to her arm.

\----------

Han groans with ecstatic pleasure at the soft give of the bed as he falls face-forward into the pillows.

Make no mistakes, he loves the Falcon dearer than most things, but he hadn’t realized how great this bed was.

“And here I thought you liked me,” Leia quips wryly as she slowly unbraids her hair.

Han rolls over. “You’re great too, sweetheart.”

“Thanks for the sentiment,” Leia is sarcastic, but a smile plays at her lips. She’s relearning how to, and Han’s even gladder to see it again.

She moves to the bathroom, Han begins to think out loud.

“Never thought I’d see the day where I was pleased to see pirates put away.”

“She’s not a pirate, she’s a Sith assassin,” Leia calls back.

Han shrugs. She’s been pirate longer than assassin, so it’s a thin distinction for him.

Leia returns, turning the lights off and curling around Han’s side.

Quieter, “Still, this is practically company man for me – no going back. I guess we do become our parents in the end.”

Leia stiffens slightly, saying nothing.

Han kisses her absently on the forehead and, truly tired, closes his eyes, arm thrown over Leia’s waist.

**Author's Note:**

> See author bio for discussion on this 'verse.


End file.
